ppowning on tue 25 jun 96
I'm afraid I've missed a few good postings on this thread but what I've seen
is hitting close to home. What the nineties has brought many of us who have
been making pots for many years (twenty-five for me) is not what we expected.
The eighties gave me the idea I was in the groove and that things would just
keep getting better. Work in the $500-$2,000 range was selling briskly, no
more mugs, candle sticks or trivets for me! Then the boom lowered;
galleries and shops
began buying from wholesale shows almost exclusively, the industrial
revolution was reinvented (ram pressing, jiggering, bisque blanks etc.) and
price point is KING. We're not in a period that rewards attention to the sort
of design and detail that takes time, at least not as I formerly experienced
it.
I'm not crying in my beer. Not yet anyway. It's still possible to make a good
living making pots but it means a large shift away from the sort of work I'd
rather be making and was making and selling with success 6-7 years ago.
My average price per pot has dropped from maybe $150-200 to less than fifty.
Expensive (time-consuming) work in exhibitions gets good reviews and lots of
interest but few buyers. Hard to say if things will bounce back but I think
something more
fundamental is going on.
I expect there are others out there who are having a similar experience to
mine. I'd love to hear about it. What I've heard about Tom Turner
finding another outlet for his abilities resonates with me. If I was younger I
might be tempted into mass production by mechanical means and or multiple
employees but the thought makes my soul weary. I didn't become a craftsman
because I was desperate to make money any way I could. I do it because I love
it and making a living at it has been a terrific bonus. Competing with
machines isn't my idea of fun.
Peter Powning
Sussex, New Brunswick
ppowning@nbnet.nb.ca
Where it's cool and rainy 5 degrees C.
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